Asked what keeps him up at night as The Citadel’s season opener approaches, Bulldogs coach Brent Thompson had a succinct answer.
Freshmen.
“We’ve got a lot of freshmen on the depth chart,” Thompson noted Tuesday during his first news conference of the season.
Nine true freshmen, to be exact, including two starters on the offensive line and one at punter. How the knobs, as freshmen are known at the military school, perform Saturday will have a lot to say about how the two-time defending Southern Conference champs fare against a Division II Newberry team that won 10 games last year and is eager to pull off a history-making upset.
True freshmen Jon Barrett Lewis and Jonathan Cole will start their first college games at the guard spots on The Citadel’s offensive line, key cogs in the triple-option offense. Redshirt freshman Prince Howard-Whitaker also is a first-time starter at left tackle.
Lewis is a 6-2, 300-pounder from Lenoir, N.C., who played for the North Carolina Shrine Bowl team and starred for his high school team in an option offense similar to The Citadel’s. Cole, 6-1 and 286 pounds, was an all-conference player at Fuquay-Varina (N.C.) High School.
Flexbone Association 
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